Agenda item

To receive a presentation on the forthcoming consultation on updating the Council’s Flood Risk Plan, so that the Sub-Committee can provide feedback and input into its development.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 59 to 116 of the agenda, which provided an update the ongoing consultation with residents, local businesses, and other stakeholders on a draft Local Flood Risk Management Strategy for Croydon. The Cabinet Member for Streets & Environment and Senior Engineer introduced the item and went through the presentation at Appendix 3.

The Chair commented on the thoroughness of the Draft Strategy, but raised concerns that quarterly meetings of the Flood Group had not taken place for a long time, and that the Flood Risk Action Plan had not been reviewed since 2021, which suggested a lack of resources. The Senior Engineer explained that the Draft Strategy had been developed to be deliverable within the available resources, and that the Action Plan would continue to be reviewed quarterly; currently the Flood Group was internal, but would invite external partners where appropriate to contribute. The last meeting of the Group had taken place recently, and the next date could be provided after the meeting.

The Sub-Committee asked how consultation results could feed into what was a complex and technical Strategy. The Senior Engineer explained that the consultation was in two parts, one looking at whether the objectives of the Strategy were correct, and the second looking to collect resident intelligence on flood risks the Council may not be aware of. The Cabinet Member for Streets & Environment explained that every effort had been made to reduce jargon and to make the Strategy and consultation as accessible as possible. The Chair asked how residents who were at higher risk of flood would be engaged, and heard that this group would be directly targeted for their involvement. Members asked if the Council kept flooding reports, and if this data would be used to target communications. The Senior Engineer explained that there was an action in the Action Plan to make sure the information collected on flooding events was consistent through development of a template for use in the contact centre; currently data was logged on an Excel spreadsheet stored in a SharePoint and specific information from this could be provided to residents on request. The Chair asked if data was collected on the source of a flood, and whether the Flood Incident Register could be published on the website. The Senior Engineer explained that this data was collected where available, but that there were no plans to publish the Register, although information from the Register was available to residents on request. The Director of Sustainable Communities explained that the statutory Section 19 flooding reports the Council produced were published on the website; the Chair stated that one had not been published since 2017, and the Senior Engineer explained the circumstances that would require a Section 19 report to be produced.

Members asked if there was a specific department responsible for flood risk, and heard that this sat in Highways, but that many departments worked together through the Flood Risk group to meet the Council’s obligations. The Sub-Committee asked if the Council had the resources to deliver on the Strategy within current limited resources. The Director of Sustainable Communities responded that the consultation would be important in determining the resources needed to deliver the Strategy, and that the final report for Cabinet would take this into consideration. The Chair asked what lessons had been learned from the previous Strategy, and how these would feed into the new iteration. The Senior Engineer explained that the original Strategy had been the Council’s first attempt, and that it had some issues. There had been significant efforts to simplify the Strategy, and to remove jargon, as well as making sure actions in the Action Plan were achievable and manageable. Members asked about the impact the loss of trees through development had on flood risk and whether an arborist had been consulted in its development. The Senior Engineer stated they had not, but that they would take this away as an action.

The Sub-Committee asked about the maintenance of drainage through cleaning, repair and pumping, and how often this was being conducted and whether the condition of these assets was recorded. The Director of Sustainable Communities explained that not all of these systems were owned by the Council, but that there were around 25,000 road gullies on the highway that were on an annual cleaning programme; it was acknowledged that there were challenges around this with parked cars blocking access at times. The frequency of drainage cleansing in known flood risk areas was conducted quarterly, with some cleansed even more regularly. There were around 3,500 soakaways across the borough that were also on a cyclical cleaning programme. The Director of Sustainable Communities explained that some of the networks were the responsibility of water authorities, particularly where there were combined foul and surface water sewers, who the Council engaged with in its role as the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA). The Sub-Committee heard that one of the challenges in developing the Strategy was the lack of, or inconsistent, data, but that new technology was now being used, such as flow monitoring of rivers and deep bore ground water monitoring, which allowed the Council to react to flood risk faster. The Director of Sustainable Communities commented on the importance of providing flood prevention advice to residents who were are at risk; this involved engagement at resident meetings, publicising available funding, leafleting and speaking with individuals where possible to provide advice on possible mitigations. Members heard that the Council was looking to have a more co-ordinated and efficient approach through the new Strategy, in providing advice on flood mitigations, active flood prevention and its reaction to flooding events.

Members asked if the Council had any enforcement or powers to compel utility companies where they were not providing upkeep on flood prevention assets they owned. The Director of Sustainable Communities explained that this power sat with the Environment Agency, but that one of the main challenges in Croydon was understanding where all of the infrastructure was, who it was owned by, and who was responsible for maintaining it. The Sub-Committee were informed that this was why engagement with the utility companies was so important in developing the new Strategy. The Chair asked about the Council’s power to issue fines to utility companies, and it was explained that the Council granted permits for utility companies to work on the highway and could issue fines where the conditions of the permit were breached.

The Chair asked about engagement with residents around flood risk prevention and the Senior Engineer explained that they attended the Caterham and Old Coulson Flood Action Group, alongside officers from other authorities, to provide support to residents through leaflets and providing information on available funding. Where individuals approached the Council directly, they would speak with them to provide advice where possible. The Senior Engineer explained that they worked directly with utility companies to resolve any issues where their assets were contributing to flooding or flood risk, but where flooding was occurring on private land the Council was not necessarily able to intervene.

The Sub-Committee asked how the Council worked with partners like landowners, such as the Corporation of London, to reduce the risk of flooding. The Senior Engineer explained that they worked with landowners, where these could be identified, to make recommendations on methods that could reduce flooding risk. The Strategy did not include flood prevention methods on private land, but the Council would always work with residents to provide advice on measures they could implement to ensure that they were meeting their responsibilities for maintaining watercourses on their own land. The Director of Sustainable Communities confirmed that the Council could take legal action against landowners who were failing to uphold their responsibility for maintaining flood prevention measures on their property.

Members asked about sustainable urban drainage on developments, and whether work was being done with Planning colleagues on including this in the Local Plan as opposed to by condition on a per application basis. The Director of Sustainable Communities confirmed that there was a good relationship with the Planning department, and that the LLFA were a statutory consultee on all major development applications. The Director of Sustainable Communities explained that they could take away the suggestions on including sustainable urban drainage in the review of the Local Plan to the relevant director.

The Chair commented on the importance of nature-based solutions for flood prevention, and the Senior Engineer explained that the plan did not contain any specific measures, but that grant funding for this was available and that the Council was investigating if it met the criteria to apply for this. The Chair asked about how ‘blue corridors’ would be accounted for in the Strategy, and the Director of Sustainable Communities explained that there were plans to develop this further in Croydon, and encouraged Members to feed this into the consultation.

The Vice-Chair commented on the ambitious nature of the strategy, and asked how confident the Cabinet Member for Streets & Environment was that the Strategy was deliverable. The Cabinet Member for Streets & Environment responded that the full scale of the Strategy would only be apparent once the consultation was completed, but that they were confident that the final Strategy would be deliverable. The Sub-Committee heard that they would be tracking the progress of implementing the Strategy on a weekly basis, as they did with a number of areas.

Members explained that an interest group had approach Councillors about the South Norwood Lake, and asked the Cabinet Member for Streets & Environment if there was any planned work on the site, and if there were any known risks to the lake from Climate Change. The Sub-Committee heard that the Cabinet Member for Streets & Environment had met with the group a number of times since May 2022 to discuss a number of issues.

The Sub-Committee asked if there was any additional funding streams available outside of that available from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The Director for Sustainable Communities explained that the vast majority of the funding did come from DEFRA; once the Strategy was adopted, the resource profile would be looked at to ensure it could be delivered. Members commented that the work being done to standardise the information captured on flooding events was vital, as this information was important to ensuring the Council had accurate data to meet thresholds to receive DEFRA funding.

The Sub-Committee asked how private landowners were provided with flood prevention advice, and the Director of Sustainable Communities explained that there was substantial information on the Council website as well as the Environment Agency website. Where there were known flooding issues, or flooding investigations or Section 19 reports had been written, the Council then looked at what prevention and mitigation methods could be put in place.The Director for Sustainable Communities stated that, where residents were at risk of imminent flooding, the Council would help through the Emergency Planning process. The Sub-Committee commented that a public awareness campaign on flooding could be very useful, and were informed that winter preparedness campaigns did feature flooding but it was acknowledged that this could be expanded.

Request for information

The Sub-Committee requested that they be provided with the next meeting date of the Council’s internal Flood Risk Group.

Conclusions

The Sub-Committee concluded that a briefing should be provided to Members on how the Local Flood Risk Management fed into the development of the Local Plan.

Recommendations

1. The Sub-Committee recommended that the Flood Risk Register be published on the Council’s website to ensure that this was transparent and accessible to residents.

2. The Sub-Committee recommended the implementation of a publically accessible Geographic Information System (GIS) for Croydon.

3. The Sub-Committee recommended that an the expertise of an arborist be used to feed into the Strategy, and that more thought should be put into how Blue and Green corridors can be expanded, alongside other nature based solutions, to provide additional flood prevention measures using any available grant funding available to the Council.

4. The Sub-Committee recommended that the Council implement a year-round publicity campaign on flood prevention, as it felt that beginning this in the winter was too late to be as effective as possible.